University of Wisconsin Extended Campus

CBE Case Study / IT Staffing

The University of Wisconsin Flexible Option

A competency-based education case study (Note: University of Wisconsin System restructuring, approved by the Higher Learning Commission in June 2018, is not reflected in the content of this website.)

Enrollment Management & Technology

IT Staffing

Key takeaways

  • UW Flexible Option leaders identified IT roles critical for planning, building, and operating technology systems suitable for competency-based education. Read more...
    • An IT director with strong leadership and communication skills to:
      • Prioritize and triage immediate needs while building to meet larger needs
      • Navigate institutional politics and culture to accomplish goals
      • Collaborate with operational leadership regarding progress meeting goals, new challenges coming up, and the need for executive decisions
      • Explain the complexities of technology in a CBE environment, avoiding overwhelming detail
      • Manage expectations, in particular for research and development time needed
      • Protect staff, especially when staff would retain responsibilities for existing programs in addition to their new Flex responsibilities
      • Connect with IT peers outside the UW System who also are working through challenges related to direct assessment CBE
    • A project manager to:
      • “Own” the development process
      • Track all the moving parts
      • Ensure deadlines would be met
      • Communicate across assorted stakeholders within the group and with other operational staff involved in the project
    • An enterprise architect who serves as a top level strategic expert to:
      • Provide technical leadership and consultation in translating business needs into IT solutions
      • Lead the design of intelligent, robust solutions
      • Act as a liaison between operational and internal development staff
      • Engineer and document standards-based solutions
      • Design interfaces among enterprise systems
    • Two business analysts to define and communicate evolving business requirements to the technologists building systems to meet those needs. (Note: Analysts may work across multiple projects in addition to the UW Flexible Option.)
  • UW Flex leaders created a staffing model for technologists who would develop and support the technology. Read more...

    UW Flex IT leaders based the original staffing model on consultants’ recommendations and then tweaked it based on discussions with Western Governors University and other CBE programs that had past experience with enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs).

    UW Flex IT leaders tested the staffing model and adjusted it to fit the reality of Flex. They started with three technologists and tripled that number in the early years of Flex.

    UW Flex IT leaders realized the benefits of “staffing up” with the kinds of individuals needed (see the next takeaway)—even while Flex IT leaders still were fine-tuning roles and responsibilities for the new technologists who would develop and support the technology. This approach prevented further delays.

  • UW Flex IT leaders looked for creative problem-solvers who were comfortable with ambiguity and could work both autonomously and in a collaborative way. Read more...

    UW Flex IT leaders hired “builders” rather than “maintainers.” They needed staff who would understand the direct assessment CBE landscape, embrace the student-centric UW Flex approach, recognize technology gaps between systems available and business practices, and explore solutions.

    UW Flex looked for staff who would be open-minded about assessing what was working, what wasn’t, and what else could be tried. They knew staff would need to be independent, wrestling with a problem in their own domain until the point at which a decision had to be made or an obstacle overcome. Leadership, which came from a variety of IT roles, helped colleagues overcome obstacles via new solutions instead of getting bogged down in traditional approaches.

    UW Flex IT leaders recognized the need for staff who would feel comfortable with ambiguity and confident that solving immediate problems would contribute to long-term technology solutions.

     

    Andrea DeauYou get good people to work on the project who are creative problem solvers, builders, flexible, and can work in a collaborative way. The rest will fall into place.

    Andrea Deau, IT director for the University of Wisconsin-Extension Continuing Education division

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Challenges

  • UW Flex critical IT staff were not in place early in the planning process. Read more...

    UW Flex early steps: UW Flex experience illustrates the need to allocate for the right roles—including IT—in the business plan and then to ensure the right people are in key roles early on in the CBE program development process. Uncertainty about the roles, coupled with delays due to the hiring process, meant that Flex risked losing qualified people to competing employers outside the state higher education system.

    Operating under an accelerated timeline, UW Flex senior leaders headed down the technology system purchase path before hiring key IT team leaders who would be responsible for implementing those systems. If freed from deadline pressure, Flex leaders would have preferred to fill those key roles first so that the staff could learn about the new model and then contribute to early planning discussions and decisions.

    Looking forward from 2017:  UW Flex leaders have built a sound staffing model through experience and through consultation with other higher education institutions offering CBE programs. They continue to tweak and refine the model as staff move on and the UW Flexible Option expands and evolves. Hiring remains a slow process, but is easier with job descriptions already developed.